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Re: A tug-of-war between Metro, Metrolink intensifies as thousands switch to cheaper Gold Line
Author: mook
Date: 07-31-2017 - 16:57
The reverse- and cross-commute thing has been an issue for years in transit. It's easy to do suburb-to-center city (the old railroad lines often used for light rail already go there) but much more difficult to go elsewhere. It's not just low density sprawl that does that: even in NY, cross-suburb transit is kind of sporadic.
As Bob2 explained, the present "loss" of passengers at Covina may largely reverse once Pomona is reached making transfers more convenient. Also, I suspect (any publicly available data Bob?) that a lot of the transfers at Covina (and prospectively at Pomona) westbound are people that were going to the Pasadena-east area anyway; it's just that they used to have to go downtown to transfer and now have a more direct route. If that's the case, I'd expect growth, not loss, in Metrolink traffic east of the transfer. Presumably, there are adequate bus lines (or Uber deals) to connect from the train to jobs in the IE for the reverse commuters.
Interesting that as far as I can tell Metrolink is the only major US commuter line that has a suburb-suburb route (San Bernardino-OC). Sacramento is still noodling with the idea of its first pseudo-BRT line; it would connect 2 light rail stations on the east side of town using one of the busiest streets in the metro area, and already has a bus lane to use when crossing the freeway and the river due to work done as part of an interchange reconstruction. IOW cross-suburb connecting major job centers south of 50 and in the McClellan area north of 50. Good idea; too bad the money isn't there to finish the job.
Andecdote: I was in LA last week, in Irvine heading to LA (yes, Metrolink is cheaper than Amtrak to LA - less than 1/2 price - and there are more of them, and they're just about as quick despite the extra stops); a San Bernardino train came in about 10 minutes before the LA train, and there was a good-sized crowd getting on despite the relatively early PM hour (a little after 4 PM) - probably more than double the crowd getting on my LA train. Given the traffic situation (in the morning, with normal traffic only, it took only 10 minutes less to Uber from KSNA to the office in Irvine, near the train station, than it took to fly there from N.Calif.), I probably beat most of the others in the group (adding their trips home and to downtown in the morning) to LA.
As Bob2 explained, the present "loss" of passengers at Covina may largely reverse once Pomona is reached making transfers more convenient. Also, I suspect (any publicly available data Bob?) that a lot of the transfers at Covina (and prospectively at Pomona) westbound are people that were going to the Pasadena-east area anyway; it's just that they used to have to go downtown to transfer and now have a more direct route. If that's the case, I'd expect growth, not loss, in Metrolink traffic east of the transfer. Presumably, there are adequate bus lines (or Uber deals) to connect from the train to jobs in the IE for the reverse commuters.
Interesting that as far as I can tell Metrolink is the only major US commuter line that has a suburb-suburb route (San Bernardino-OC). Sacramento is still noodling with the idea of its first pseudo-BRT line; it would connect 2 light rail stations on the east side of town using one of the busiest streets in the metro area, and already has a bus lane to use when crossing the freeway and the river due to work done as part of an interchange reconstruction. IOW cross-suburb connecting major job centers south of 50 and in the McClellan area north of 50. Good idea; too bad the money isn't there to finish the job.
Andecdote: I was in LA last week, in Irvine heading to LA (yes, Metrolink is cheaper than Amtrak to LA - less than 1/2 price - and there are more of them, and they're just about as quick despite the extra stops); a San Bernardino train came in about 10 minutes before the LA train, and there was a good-sized crowd getting on despite the relatively early PM hour (a little after 4 PM) - probably more than double the crowd getting on my LA train. Given the traffic situation (in the morning, with normal traffic only, it took only 10 minutes less to Uber from KSNA to the office in Irvine, near the train station, than it took to fly there from N.Calif.), I probably beat most of the others in the group (adding their trips home and to downtown in the morning) to LA.
